The Fehmarnbelt construction project is to be postponed again. This became apparent when the new Danish Transport Minister Ole Birk Olesen met with Schleswig-Holstein’s Transport Minister Reinhard Meyer in Kiel on 12 December.

According to Meyer, the final decision on the start of
construction will be delayed by six months, i.e. to mid-2018. The
main reason for the delay is the 12,600 objections and complaints
that have been received from German Fehmarnbelt opponents.

Tensions have also arisen in the government coalition as Meyer
has placed co-responsibiity for the delay with his ministerial
colleague for the environment Robert Habeck (Greens). Habeck
delivered a statement concerning the protection of porpoises in the
Fehmarnbelt two months late, says the Transport Minister. In
addition, a statement from the Environmental Protection Agency
(Umweltbundesamt) on noise pollution from the tunnel construction
has been delayed.

"Yet another delay to the German approval process for the
Fehmarnbelt project is worrying. We can only hope that the extreme
thoroughness in this phase of the process will ensure that any
legal proceedings will proceed quickly and smoothly so that
the overall timetable for the project can be maintained and we will
be able to drive through the tunnel in 2028."

In a letter to Schleswig-Holstein's Transport Minister Reinhard
Meyer, STRING's Chairman Steen Bach Nielsen expressed his serious
concerns about the new delay to the approval process. The Chairman
has appealed for joint focus on the great potential that the link
offers and emphasises the necessity of the overall timetable for
the tunnel opening, i.e. by 2028, being maintained.

STRING partners

STRING is a political cross-border partnership between Akershus County and Østfold County in Norway, Region Halland, Region Västra Götaland, Region Skåne and the City of Malmö in Sweden, the City of Copenhagen, the Capital Region of Denmark and Region Zealand in Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein and the City of Hamburg and in Germany.